


dispute resolution

by Sixthlight



Series: Slices of Life [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Board Games, Competition, Gen, Monopoly (Board Game), Post-Canon, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sixthlight/pseuds/Sixthlight
Summary: Nile discovers the team's version of Monopoly is...a little more creative than the one she's used to.
Relationships: Nile & the Team
Series: Slices of Life [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2217837
Comments: 8
Kudos: 131





	dispute resolution

Nile still wasn’t entirely sure if they _actually_ needed to be hiding out on this tiny Scottish island while Copley scoured the web and various NSA server facilities to ensure their identities were erased. On the other hand, coming back to life in broad daylight and in the middle of Seville hadn’t been the smartest thing she’d ever done. But, you know, it hadn’t been on _purpose_. 

There was absolutely no internet out here, and Copley hadn’t seen fit to provide them with a satellite connection (’I don’t think it would be helpful’, he’d said darkly.) Luckily, everybody Nile was stuck with was a past master at making their own fun. Quỳnh, with five hundred years under the sea behind her, could entertain herself with just about anything. Once she’d sat there for an hour while Joe and Nile cooked dinner, staring at an orange. Joe had checked in with her every so often. She’d been fine. As fine as she could be, anyway. Recovery was a process. 

Nile, personally, took a little more entertaining. She’d known she was entering dangerous waters when she’d found the dusty copy of Monopoly in a cupboard and offered it up to the others. She hadn’t figured exactly how dangerous. 

“I want to buy this power plant,” Nicky announced, moving his wheelbarrow forward. 

“I already bought it,” Nile said. 

“Right,” Nicky said. “So you get to choose the contest.”

(So far, the new rules Nile had discovered were:

\- all references to charging interest were ignored, because it was immoral (Nicky and Joe, in unison)

\- every time you passed Go, you took a drink (Booker)

\- of water (Andy, still grumpy about her much-reduced liver capacity)

\- ownership of squares could be challenged (Quỳnh)

\- current owner’s choice of combat (Nile, after Andy had bullied Booker into arm-wrestling and beat him handily)

The list did not seem likely to get shorter.)

“Uh, paper scissors rock,” Nile said. Nicky shook his head, making a tsking sound. “No. Too boring. Poker. A hundred each to start, and the first to be cleaned out loses. Joe can deal.”

“What happened to -”

“He’s right, too boring, but I’ll deal,” Andy interrupted. “You don’t want to know what Joe can do with a deck of cards.”

Joe put a hand on his chest, with a finely-calculated wounded expression. “Do you accuse me of cheating?”

“On your own behalf? No. On Nicky’s? Always.”

Quỳnh laughed. “She’s right. But _I_ will deal.” 

“Fine,” Nile conceded grumpily. She hoped that covered the fact that military deployments were boring and she had played a _hell_ of a lot of hands of poker. Probably not as many as someone who’d been born before playing cards were invented, but she felt like she might have a shot here.

When she took her winnings - and the power plant she was keeping, _thank_ you very much - Nicky looked suspiciously at Quỳnh, but said nothing. Nile smirked. And also glanced at Quỳnh out of the corner of her eye. The royal flush had been a bit _too_ providential. 

“My turn,” Booker said, rubbing his hands. “I have my sights on Piccadilly, I’m warning you now.”

By the time Copley said they were clear to leave the island, the game had stretched to an entire week, a rapier duel between Andy and Joe, and a soufflé contest. Nobody had, so far as Nile could tell, actually won Monopoly. 

“Did you all keep yourself entertained?” Copley asked Nile, when she called him. “Lots of long walks in the sea air? Can’t imagine there was much else to do up there.”

Nile laughed. “Oh, you have no idea.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an anon Tumblr prompt: "The Old Guard have to lay low (or are in a coronavirus lockdown) and the place they're staying offers few entertainments except for five different editions of Monopoly."


End file.
